table renovation: COMPLETED

I don't know if I've ever felt THIS relieved about a project before.  We finished our table renovation. finally.  This thing was a beast, I'm telling you.  We chose to spray paint the chairs and table base.  Spray painting one chair was easy, but multiply that 6 + priming first + the table and you get 1 tired momma!

Then came the staining.  Oh my, the staining. We tried it once and ruined it.  Like, seriously.  It looked awful!  So, we sanded it down and started over and luckily got it right the second time!  After all was said and done, we LOVE the results!  It's a fresh, updated table and it matches our style so much better.   I'm just so glad it's over. :-) 

Here are some before and after pictures!

Before.  Ugly and green

And after. Beautiful and not green!

desk makeover

I finished my desk makeover a couple of weeks ago but am just now getting around to posting the before and after photos!  I absolutely love how the desk turned out.  I gave the desk a brand new back panel, painted it a beautiful french blue, and added black hardware.  All the changes really gave it a brand new appearance.  As of now we're using the desk as a buffet of sorts in our dining area.  So, here are the pictures:

I can't wait for my next project: dining table makeover!  FINALLY!

Blog facelift and other life events

I decided to give the blog a little facelift today.  I'm liking it but might still change the title... just a warning.  We have a lot of "new" going on lately, you know, with having a baby and figuring out to take care of him 24/7 and all.  We are LOVING being Elijah's parents and think he is just the coolest little dude.  He's starting to smile more often and it's so fun to see his little personality start to come out.  He's hilarious, a trait I like to think he gets from both his parents.

Another "new" thing is that we're moving!  Yes, you read that right.  We have a 5 week old and have made the brilliant decision to move to a new house.  We love the new place and are only feeling slightly overwhelmed with the idea of packing.  It'll be a really good move for us and is only 5 minutes from our current house, so isn't a huge move distance wise.

If moving and caring for an infant wasn't enough, I've decided to take on 2 DIY projects.  I'm finally going to refinish our dining room table.  I talked about doing it here but that never happened.  Oops.  I'm also going to refinish and paint an old desk and use it as a buffet in our new dining area.  Pretty excited about both projects and am planning to go buy the supplies once little man wakes up.

I'll leave you with some Elijah pictures because, let's face it, he's really cute!

Home

What is home?

This is a question I've asked myself repeatedly over the past few years. Living 1500 miles from my family has been really difficult for me and I've definitely had my moments (okay, more like months on end) of wishing I lived closer to them. It's taken me a long time to truly feel at home here in California, in fact, I'd say it's been in the last couple of months. I was constantly wishing and wanting something that couldn't happen now and that was making me so sad. Finally, I stopped, looked around and said "this is home for now, stop crying and start enjoying." Who knows where we'll be in a year, two years, ten years, but for now, we're HERE! I want to present every. single. day. That being said, nothing will ever replace my longing to live near my family, and I'm sure we will at some point in our lives, for now I'm here (this is me reminding myself even as I type so I'm not sad). :-)

One of the reasons I really love where we are is that Jason LOVES his job. I mean, like the love that makes you jealous that you aren't doing his job even though you really don't have that skill set, kind of love. We are so blessed that he has a job at all, let alone one he truly enjoys going to every day. Another reason that this is home is we've made wonderful, lifelong friends. This may have been possibly the most helpful in making this feel like home for me. Lastly, we've made our house a home and I just love living in it. It's where real life is lived, it may not always be pretty, but it's real. We've cried many tears in this house, some happy, some sad. But all those tears, happy and sad, have been cried together.

All of those things help to define home for me, but what truly defines it is (okay, this is really cheesy, you ready for this?) wherever Jason is. He's my home. And that gives me hope for the day when we might move far away, because it'll all be alright, as long as we're together, we are home.

What is home for you?

Table Renovation

Since I suddenly have all this free time on my hands I have decided to take on a couple of renovation projects to fill my time! I bought an old window frame from an antique store that I want to use as the headboard for our guest room. I plan on sanding it down and painting it white.

The first project I want to tackle is a table renovation. We bought this adorable table with 6 matching chairs for $75 off of craigslist. The table is a farmhouse style table with green legs. Yes, green. Here's a picture:


My plan for the table is to refinish the top and paint the legs and chairs (except for the seat). I can't decide what color to paint the legs. My original idea was the paint them white, like a classic farmhouse table would look. Here is an example:


I recently saw a picture online though of a table with blue legs and I LOVED it. Our kitchen has lots of antique blue and I think it would be really neat to carry that into the table. Here is a picture of that idea:


Okay, so what is your opinion? Blue, white, or some other third color? I'd love to hear your ideas on the subject! HAPPY ALMOST WEEKEND!

The Times They Are A-Changin'

I cannot believe that our last blog post was all the way back in January! So much has happened since then and I will try my very best to fill you in on our life (and I'll include pictures!)

Jason has been at his new job now for about 5 months and absolutely loves it! Things have slowed down a bit now that it's summer but he is excited to start a new school year in his new position. We are truly blessed that he was selected for this job!

Jason and I both graduated in May, Jason with his master of Divinity Degree and I with my bachelors of science degree!! We are so excited to be done with school and be able to experience marriage without night classes :-) Here are a couple pictures from our graduations:




We also moved into a new house since my last post! We are renting a cute, little two bedroom house in Pomona. We LOVE it here and really think it's starting to feel like home. It's so fun having an extra bedroom in case people come to stay, which we have actually already had our first guests: my mom and Marky Mark! It was so fun having them here. Here are a few pictures of the new house (keep in mind, it's a work in progress!):

Guest Bedroom!




Another transition that I am going through is the end of my job for the past two and half years. I have been lucky enough to be the nanny of the two sweetest girls in the world. Since Violet is starting preschool in the fall, there is no need for me anymore. The little girls outgrew me! I miss them so much but am thankful for the time I had with them. I'm also looking forward to next chapter in my life, a new career! I've applied for many-a-job but have yet to hear back from a single one.

Something else you might be interested in are some health changes that are going on. I, in my incredible clumsiness, tripped off a curb and fractured two bones AND tore the ligaments. I'm trying to think of a better story to how I got hurt, so if you think of one, let me know. So, it's no walking for 6 weeks for me. What a start to my summer break, right? Jason is also experiencing some health stuff. He has been experiencing some more heart episodes in the past few weeks. We are in the process of getting a doctors appointment and try to figure out what is going on! In the meantime we have decided to limit Jason's driving and so I get to be his chauffeur for awhile. I am honestly really thankful for the timing of all this. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't like not being able to walk AND I hate Jason having heart pauses BUT if it had to happen I'm glad it all happened now. I am able to take care of Jason and drive him places because I am jobless and can't do much because of my foot. We are always looking for the silver lining :-) Oh and in case you wanted to see it, here is my swollen foot on the day of the injury AND a picture of my hurt foot compared to my regular foot a week after my run in with the curb (impressive, right?):



So I think that's all the updates for now! Stay tuned to a renovation update coming later today... I have a lot of time on my hands! Have a wonderful Thursday!